[Peace-discuss] Matthew Hoh's resignation & USG goals in AfPak

[C. G. Estabrook]

I think people have to be taken at their word.  To do anything else is a sign of 
contempt.  He says that he objects not to how we are pursuing this war, but why.

But we certainly should object to how we're pursuing the war, as the dead 
children and destroyed families of civilians attest.  We treat them like insects 
and don't notice when we step on them, because we are in pursuit of higher goals 
-- deterring terrorism, as Obama says.

There is nothing in his letter to suggest that Hoh has an answer to why we
are pursuing the war, even though he knows that that Obama's justification -- 
"securing Afghanistan to prevent al-Qaeda resurgence" -- is a lie.

We need to condemn both what the Obama administration is doing, and why. --CGE


Morton K. Brussel wrote:
> Wow! This is quite a statement, which you unfortunately depreciate, although
> seeming to recognize its value.
> 
> You, in fact do not know whether Hoh understands or not the true reasons for
> the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, etc. . He is content to "merely"
> describe why he is resigning on a "practical" level—it seems to me. --mkb
> 
> On Oct 27, 2009, at 4:27 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 
>> "Matthew Hoh, a former Marine officer, resigned from his current State 
>> Department post in Afghanistan, saying he no longer believes the war is
>> worth American lives." [CSM]
>> 
>> Hoh's letter of resignation is below.  He explains that he doesn't 
>> understand or trust "the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence
>> in Afghanistan." His objections are not to "how we are pursuing this war,
>> but why."  But he doesn't suggest why.
>> 
>> He knows that "our stated strategy of securing Afghanistan to prevent 
>> al-Qaeda resurgence" is false, but he fails to see that it's a necessary
>> propaganda cover for the real geopolitical reasons that the US has for
>> dominating the region. (He does recognize that the propaganda cover "would
>> require us to additionally invade and occupy western Pakistan, Somalia,
>> Sudan, Yemen, etc." -- as we are doing, because the real reason requires
>> that, too.)
>> 
>> For those real goals, the chosen means are appropriate -- vicious, but 
>> appropriate.  And American planners understand what they're doing. They
>> should not so much be better informed as opposed.  --CGE
>> 
>> 
>> ================ September 10, 2009
>> 
>> Ambassador Nancy J. Powell Director General of the Foreign Service and
>> Director of Human Resources U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW 
>> Washington, D.C. 20520
>> 
>> Dear Ambassador Powell,
>> 
>> It is with great regret and disappointment I submit my resignation from my
>> appointment as a Political Officer in the Foreign Service and my post as
>> the Senior Civilian Representative for the U.S. Government in Zabul
>> Province. I have served six of the previous ten years in service to our
>> country overseas, to include deployment as a U.S. Marine ofticer and
>> Department of Defense civilian in the Euphrates and Tigris River Valleys of
>> Iraq in 2004-2005 and 2006-2007. I did not enter into this position lightly
>> or with any undue expectations nor did I believe my assignment would be
>> without sacrifice hardship or difficulty. However, in the course of my five
>> months of service in Afghanistan, in both Regional Commands East and South,
>> I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of
>> the United States’ presence in Afghanistan. I have doubts and reservations
>>  about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation
>> is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end. To
>> put simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued U.S.
>> casualties or expenditures or resources in support of the Afghan government
>> in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.
>> 
>> This fall will mark the eighth year of U.S. combat, governance and 
>> development operations within Afghanistan. Next fall, the United States’
>> occupation will equal in length the Soviet Union’s own physical involvement
>> in Afghanistan. Like the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a
>> failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government
>> unknown and unwanted by its people.
>> 
>> If the history or Afghanistan is one great stage play, the United States is
>> no more than a supporting actor, among several previously, in a tragedy
>> that not only pits tribes, valleys, clans, villages and families against
>> one another, but, from at least the end of King Zahir Shah’s reign, has
>> violently and savagely pitted the urban, secular, educated and modem of
>> Afghanistan against the rural, religious, illiterate and traditional. It is
>> this latter group that composes and supports the Pashtun insurgency. The
>> Pashtun insurgency, which is composed of multiple, seemingly infinite,
>> local groups, is fed by what is perceived by the Pashtun people as a
>> continued and sustained assault, going back centuries, on Pashtun land,
>> culture, traditions and religion by internal and external enemies. The U.S.
>> and NATO presence and operations in Pashtun valleys and villages, as well
>> as Afghan army and police units that are led and composed of non-Pashtun 
>> soldiers and police, provide an occupation force against which the 
>> insurgency is justified. In both RC East and South, I have observed that
>> the bulk of the insurgency fights not for the white banner of the Taliban,
>> but rather against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an
>> unrepresentative government in Kabul.
>> 
>> The United States military presence in Afghanistan greatly contributes to
>> the legitimacy and strategic message of the Pashtun insurgency. In a like
>> manner our backing of the Afghan government in its current form continues
>> to distance the government from the people. The Afghan government’s
>> failings, particularly when weighed against the sacrifice of American lives
>> and dollars, appear legion and metastatic:
>> 
>> • Glaring corruption and unabashed graft; • A President whose confidants
>> and chief advisers comprise drug lords and war crimes villains, who mock
>> our own rule of law and counternarcotics efforts; • A system of provincial
>> and district leaders constituted of local power brokers, opportunists and
>> strongmen allied to the United States solely for, and limited by, the value
>> of our USAID and CERP contracts and whose own political and economic
>> interests stand nothing to gain from any positive or genuine attempts at
>> reconciliation; and • The recent election process dominated by fraud and
>> discredited by low voter turnout, which has created an enormous victory for
>> our enemy who now claims a popular boycott and will call into question
>> worldwide our government’s military, economic and diplomatic support for an
>>  invalid and illegitimate Afghan government.
>> 
>> Our support for this kind of government, coupled with a misunderstanding of
>> the insurgency’s true nature, reminds me horribly of our involvement with
>> South Vietnam; an unpopular and corrupt government we backed at the expense
>> of our Nation’s own internal peace, against an insurgency whose nationalism
>> we arrogantly and ignorantly mistook as a rival to our own Cold War
>> ideology.
>> 
>> I find specious the reasons we ask for bloodshed and sacrifice from our
>> young men and women in Afghanistan. If honest, our stated strategy of
>> securing Afghanistan to prevent al-Qaeda resurgence or regrouping would
>> require us to additionally invade and occupy western Pakistan, Somalia,
>> Sudan, Yemen, etc. Our presence in Afghanistan has only increased
>> destabilization and insurgency in Pakistan where we rightly fear a toppled
>> or weakened Pakistani government may lose control of nuclear weapons.
>> However, again, to follow the logic of our stated goals we should garrison
>> Pakistan, not Afghanistan. More so, the September 11th attacks, as well as
>> the Madrid and London bombings, were primarily planned and organized in
>> Western Europe; a point that highlights the threat is not one tied to
>> traditional geographic or political boundaries. Finally, if our concern is
>> for a failed state crippled by corruption and poverty and under assault
>> from criminal and drug lords, then if we bear our military and financial
>> contributions to Afghanistan, we must reevaluate our commitment to and
>> involvement in Mexico.
>> 
>> Eight years into war, no nation has ever known a more dedicated, well 
>> trained, experienced and disciplined military as the U.S. Armed Forces. I
>> do not believe any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex,
>> opaque and Sisyphean mission as the U.S. military has received in
>> Afghanistan. The tactical proficiency and performance of our Soldiers,
>> Sailors, Airmen and Marines is unmatched and unquestioned. However, this is
>> not the European or Pacific theaters of World War II, but rather is a war
>> war for which our leaders, uniformed, civilian and elected, have
>> inadequately prepared and resourced our men and women. Our forces, devoted
>> and faithful, have committed to conflict in an indefinite and unplanned
>> manner that has become a cavalier, politically expedient and Pollyannaish 
>> misadventure. Similarly, the United States has a dedicated and talented
>> cadre of civilians, both U.S. government employees and contractors, who
>> believe in and sacrifice for their mission, but have been ineffectually
>> trained and led with guidance and intent shaped more by the political
>> climate in Washington, D.C. than in Afghan cities, villages, mountains and
>> valleys.
>> 
>> “We are spending ourselves into oblivion” a very talented and intelligent
>> commander, one of America’s best, briefs every visitor, staff delegation
>> and senior officer. We are mortgaging our Nation’s economy on a war, which,
>> even with increased commitment, will remain a draw for years to come.
>> Success and victory, whatever they may be, will be realized not in years,
>> after billions more spent, but in decades and generations. The United
>> States does not enjoy a national treasury for such success and victory.
>> 
>> I realize the emotion and tone of my letter and ask you excuse any ill 
>> temper. I trust you understand the nature of this war and the sacrifices
>> made by so many thousands of families who have been separated from loved
>> ones deployed in defense of our Nation and whose homes bear the fractures,
>> upheavals and scars of multiple and compounded deployments. Thousands of
>> our men and women have returned home with physical and mental wounds, some
>> that will never heal or will only worsen with time. The dead return only in
>> bodily form to be received by families who must be reassured their dead
>> have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished, and
>> promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can anymore
>> be made. As such, l submit my resignation.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> 
>> /s/ Matthew P. Hoh Senior Civilian Representative Zabul Province,
>> Afghanistan
>> 
>> cc: Mr. Frank Ruggiero Ms. Dawn Liberi Ambassador Anthony Wayne Ambassador
>> Karl Eikenberry
>> 
>> http://warincontext.org/2009/10/27/a-letter-from-afghanistan-that-every-american-must-read/
>> 
>> 
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